The 5 iOS 18 Features We Hate the Most

Every year we see the release of a new version of iOS, and like Clockwork, Apple announced the first developer builds of iOS 18 in June 2024. Despite rumors suggesting we would see a complete interface overhaul user – little completed visually changing. Still, iOS 18’s plethora of hidden features makes it one of the most feature-packed releases in recent years.

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You also get some fancy new personalization features with iOS 18 – including the ability to finally place apps anywhere on your home screen. There’s a toggle to enable dark icons, an editing tool to rework shortcuts in Control Center, and a way to change lock screen shortcuts. The major update also added some extremely useful features, like allowing users to lock and hide apps on an iPhone or iPad.

There’s no shortage of content revolving around everything you can do in iOS 18 – and as someone who has primarily used an iPhone through the various iterations of the beta and stable iOS updates, There are a few features from the latest version that I’ve come to dislike. Apple is pretty quick to fix major issues or bugs, so we won’t be fixing any of those in this particular read. It’s also worth noting that a few features we’re judging here as gadgets may be really useful to some – it’s all a matter of opinion, after all.

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The irony of labeling the iPhone 16 devices as “built for Apple Intelligence” with none of the features available at launch has not gone unnoticed. Several updates later, we finally have an assortment of Apple intelligence tools on the iPhone.

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A few might be helpful, like writing tools when crafting the perfect excuse email to your boss, or new recording and transcribing features for calls. Unfortunately, most of the features under the Apple Intelligence umbrella are still quite buggy. For starters, Siri may have gotten a new color coat and an awesome new animation, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. There’s also ChatGpt integration, but you can also use the dedicated app for a better experience.

The Genmoji feature on iOS 18 was one that I was actually very excited about. The idea of ​​creating very specific emojis that can be used on any app seemed appealing. Unfortunately, unless you have the iMessage app, any Genmoji you generate are still sent as stickers – which defeats the purpose of the feature. There’s also the Image Playground app – but it pales in comparison to the dozens of free AI image generators you could use instead. In our experience, Apple Intelligence also takes a toll on your battery life. Unfortunately, the single toggle to turn it off also prevents you from using features that aren’t as bad, like the iPhone’s cleaning tool.

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Apple isn’t known for overhauling their apps or operating systems too frequently, but when they do, it’s often well received by users. The same can’t be said for the Photos app, which has been redesigned into a confusing mess. Being a top app on the iPhone, this change sparked heated debate and frustration among many users on social media – and rightly so.

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The Photos app on iOS 17 and earlier looked good, and worked well. The biggest complaint users have with the redesign is how cluttered it is. There are several sections when you launch the app that might provide little or no value – like the “Recents” tab or the “Wallpaper Suggestions” section. The interface and behavior when viewing a photo have also been changed. In previous beta builds, the Photos app displayed padding around each image, requiring you to tap again just to fill your screen. Luckily, this has been rectified in recent versions of iOS 18 – so be sure to keep your iPhone up to date.

As for clutter, you can actually customize the order of sections and even remove them altogether. To make the Photos app on your iPhone a little less ugly, scroll all the way down and tap the “Customize & Rearrange” option. While updating the Photos app wasn’t the end of the world, it was still largely unnecessary and goes against Apple’s usual “if it’s not broken, don’t” philosophy. Don’t fix it.”

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Being able to change icon packs has been one of the most recognizable customization features on Android for years. Don’t like the default app icons that come with your Samsung Galaxy smartphone? No worries, just install one of the many free icon packs from the Play Store to change things up. Flaked and deprived of joy, iOS users have time and time again come up with creative workarounds – including using custom images as app icons through the Shortcuts app.

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You can finally enable dark and tinted app icons on iOS. While dark versions of most app icons seem to play well with the aesthetic – try choosing a custom tint color. Google had tried this a few years ago with the material you were reviewing, where your app icons match the colors of the applied wallpaper. Android failed in this aspect due to third-party developers not adopting their apps to this new standard – but at least the supported app icons didn’t look horrible.

When enabled on iOS, all apps are force-tinted with your chosen color. Countless customization buffs on the Internet have tried to make decent-looking home screens out of this feature – to no avail. Simply put, this alone could ruin the aesthetic Apple has designed for the iPhone over the years.

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If you’ve recently found yourself thinking, “Huh, these emojis look weird” while using the keyboard on your iPhone – you’re not alone. Indeed, emojis on iOS have actually increased in size. On recent versions of iOS 18, if you tap the emoji icon on the keyboard, you’ll notice larger previews. Although nothing else has changed in their behavior, this update also received backlash by users on social media.

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Not only does it temporarily ruin your muscle memory by spacing out all the emojis, but the keyboard now shows fewer emojis at a time – which means more swipes. Apple could have made this change for ease of use, or to better accommodate the new Genmojis that also reside in the Emoji section.

Unfortunately, unlike the case with the Photos app, there is currently no way to revert to small emojis on iOS. If this change bothers you a little too much, your only real option is to upgrade to a third-party keyboard. I personally used Heavy-duty key On my iPhone because it adds a persistent number line, has stronger haptic feedback, and generally sports more features than the stock keyboard on iOS.

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While you’ve been able to customize Control Center on the iPhone for years, this has only included turning certain toggles on or off, with limited flexibility to rearrange them. The iOS 18 update introduced a way to finally move shortcuts and resize compatible toggles. You can even create new pages to add additional shortcuts. Early in the iOS 18 beta, trying to customize Control Center was disastrous. Of course, you can add or remove toggles – the problem arose when you wanted to move them to form a layout of your preference.

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This has been improved a lot as we’ve received new updates, but is still far from perfect. Trying to move a shortcut into a populated control center is sure to send other toggles flying and ruining the layout. You might also notice shortcuts suddenly disappearing or being misaligned out of the grid.

Another oversight was the random layout of the Control Center when your iPhone is in landscape orientation. It was a non-issue when Apple didn’t let you move the toggles. A simple solution for this could be the option to create two different presets when your phone is in portrait or landscape modes.